Winter
by Night Fiction
Summary: It's a winter wonderland in Hinamizawa and Satoko is left to shovel snow while Rika has a cold. Satoko thinks back about how the Furude priestess changed her life. Satoko X Rika implied. Criticism is welcomed.


**Hello you all. Night Ken back here with an exciting new installment. Well not really, I'm just quietly passing time and I decided to create another fanfiction. Starring me, the poor abused jackass in this little arc. Along starring Keiichi Maebara, Rika Furude, Mion, Satoko, Rena, Shion, Soul, Sol, Ky, Sol x Maka and no not really. Though I would enjoy a cross over with Higurashi and Soul Eater. You know for laughs and giggles. Well, let us begin. (Though Sol x Maka would create much giggles from me. Seeing as Sol is a grown manly man with a rectangular sword and big muscles and Maka is… Maka… Maybe Sol x Mokou? :D)**

**This story came to me when I saw a story that included Satoko and Rika in winter time and Satoko was shoveling snow while Rika was sick with a fever. **

**It was a nice little story, all in Japanese though and the person who uploaded it on Youtube was deleted. It came to me when I was thinking of what to write just now. Enjoy.**

It rarely snowed in Hinamizawa, usually the little village was known for it's summers, when it was a perfect time to swim at the pool in Okinomiya, a perfect time to start a full on war at said pool in Okinomiya for a pair of speedos.

But now, there was no time for that, it was snowing and so school was out.

And Satoko was stuck shoveling the snow that had piled all over where the road had been near their house.

Not that Satoko minded, she was quite strong for her age so shoveling proved no hard task for her.

She also didn't want to be selfish and let Rika do all of the work the poor girl had a bad cold and was too weak to even talk.

As Satoko shoveled up more snow, every breath she took visible, she realized that she could never be selfish again. Not anymore, not after Nii-nii left.

Every time she thought about it, a feeling colder than the snow always swept up in her, that old need to cry out for Nii-nii was still there… Waiting… Almost taunting her to do it…

"I won't…" She huffed out as she stabbed into the snow, "No more crying… No more wailing…"

Then… she remembered…

_It was another night of it… An endless night of getting beaten for not doing this or that… Trivial things… Like not hanging up the clothes right… Or washing all the dishes on time… Or cooking the right dinner… on and on… But every time her aunt would move in on her… Satoshi… Nii-nii… always came… He always blocked his aunt from getting too close to his dear sister… Always apologizing that it was his fault, not Satoko's, he would take every insult, every spit in his face, while she would grab his shirt and cry into his back… And when it was finally over… When Satoshi's shirt was covered in her snivel and when she finally went to sleep… they were plagued with the knowledge that it would happen again the next night… And Satoko would just cry._

She sighed… "I was weak then… I won't be now…"

Satoko looked up at the window… Rika was still asleep maybe, hopefully the breakfast Satoko cooked was enough to keep Rika's energy up for now.

Satoko smiled a bit when she thought of the time when she and Rika met…

_It was the first day of school, since everyone was in the same class Satoko didn't worry about not having Nii-nii by her side, though Satoshi was baseball so sometimes he had to leave for practices, he didn't want to, Satoko knew he didn't but Nii-nii did…_

_They met after school… At the baseball fields, Uncle and Aunt went to Okinomiya and wouldn't be back for a long time so Satoshi brought her along to practice. _

_She felt out of place… Out in the open like this… What if Aunt came back and saw her out here? What would she do? Satoko shivered as she thought about it…_

_A small hand touched her shoulder. She jumped._

"_Mii~! Satoko, is it?" The girl giggled, "You sure are jumpy, like a cat."_

_Satoko looked at the girl strangely, she didn't have that much regard for manners, reffering to her by her first name like that… And touching someone she didn't know…_

"_Uh... Uh huh…" Satoko mumbled, maybe if she kept nodding and saying yes, the girl would eventually get bored with her and leave her alone._

_She didn't._

_It was like she was trying to get Satoko to talk to her as much as she could. Asking all sorts of questions._

"_Do you like baseball?"_

"…_Not really…"_

"_If you don't like it then why are you here?"_

"_My brother brought me here…"_

"_Oh so he likes baseball?"_

"…_If he didn't like it then why would he be playing it?"_

"_I wonder why~."_

_Satoko sighed… What would she have to do make this girl leave? It wasn't like she asked her to come and talk to her… Which was strange since no one else in this village would even give her the time of day. _

_She stared at the girl. Maybe she was playing a trick on her. A mean prank…_

"_Why don't you go away?"_

"_Mii… You want me to leave?"_

"_Yes… Just go."_

_The girl nodded slowly, she didn't seem offended or sad by it though. She still had that smile on her face… It wasn't like she understood… No one did… _

Looking back on it… Satoko realized how selfish that thought was…

Satoko didn't know that she and the girl shared at least one thing in common.

_**Next Day**_

_Satoshi was at practice again today, Satoko wandered around the village, not like she had anything good to come home to._

_She tried to ignore the stares she felt when she walked pass the grownups, they would look away when she walked by but she knew… as soon as she passed them… they would stare at her again…_

_Satoko clenched her fist… What did she ever do to them? It wasn't her fault… Satoshi always told her that the villagers were mad at their parents and not them… That one day they will all be nice and stop treating them like dirt… They both knew deep down that the day for that to happen was never coming._

_She felt itchy again… Every time she came home to Auntie or Uncle, she would feel itchy…_

"_Hi again, Satoko, I didn't know you were here!" A voice squealed happily._

_It was the girl again… What did she want now?_

"_What is it…?" What was her name… they were in the same grade… what was it…?_

"_Rika… Rika Furude." The girl said, as if she was reading Satoko's mind._

"_Yes… Rika. What is it that you want Rika?" Satoko decided to go on first name basis too, since the girl wouldn't be polite and at least call her by her last name._

"_Well… I was shopping! Nipah~!" She smiled cutely, "And I saw you here."_

_Shopping? Satoko looked behind Rika, no one was following her, she didn't see anyone call Rika back or any woman grab her by the hand and drag the girl away while scolding her not to talk to "That Houjou girl"._

"_My mother isn't here." Rika did it again, how does that girl know what she is thinking._

"_Mm…" Satoko kept walking._

"_She's dead you know."_

_Satoko stopped._

"_Mother and Father both died…" She said that smile of hers dropped, but it wasn't replaced with sadness, more like she was born without parents and didn't care._

"…"

"_Cat caught you tongue?" Rika giggled._

_Satoko opened her mouth but closed it… What could she say? The girl just blurted it out and cracked a joke right after it._

_Rika said her goodbyes and ran off. _

Satoko sighed… "Done as I'll ever be…" She dragged the shovel and threw it in the shed, then walked into the house.

"Your face is red, Satoko." A soft voice giggled.

"Want me to make yours red too?" Satoko sighed with a smile.

"How cruel, you are so mean... *sniff*…" Rika sighed.

Satoko put her arm around her, "You shouldn't be up, and I told you that you need your rest but you never listen to me."

Rika smiled but said nothing and went back up stairs, Satoko following right after her.

She stopped at the mid-point of the staircase and looked around. Rika's other house was much bigger than this, Satoko saw the main house that the Furude family had. She always thought that the head families were mean and ugly monsters just like the village. Though…Satoko did feel that she herself was a more blood sucking monster…She clung onto her brother and sucked and sucked until he ran away.

Despite all of that… This girl, who was no older than her… Went up to her and came out with that question.

"_Will you live together with me?"_

Satoko felt warm inside when she remembered that question that changed her life… The one question that made her into what she is today.

Satoko walked into the room where Rika was sleeping.

She had never met Rika's mother… But she thanked her up in heaven, Satoko thanked Rika's mother for choosing to have Rika, because she felt that without Rika, she would have still been the same leech as she was back then.

Satoko stroked Rika's forehead.

"Thank you for everything Rika… Thank you for being born…"

….

**Next Day**

The snow in Hinamizawa lightened up; as such school was opened up again.

And then the lunch bell rang.

"Agh! Dammit! Why did it have to snow and then just clear up the day after, so not fair!" Keiichi grumbled.

The girls laughed but it was broken with a sneeze.

"Eh? Satoko-chan are you sick? Sick?" Rena tilted her head in confusion.

"Ugh…*sniff* Yeah a bit…" Satoko wiped her nose, "Must've caught Rika's cold."

"Mii~! Don't blame me! I took extra special careful not to sneeze on you, and I didn't. It couldn't have been from me!"

"But I was with you the whole day yesterday! I was outside, sure, but I did wear all of my proper winter clothes so I didn't get sick from that."

"But there are other ways for colds to spread…" Mion thought out loud.

"…."

"…."

"…."

"…"

"You don't mean…?" Keiichi smirked.

_**SMACK!**_

"Please refrain from getting those thoughts in your head, Keiichi-san." Satoko said with a mad blush on her face.

Will the mystery of how Satoko got the cold ever get solved?

Perhaps that's a story, for another time.

**AAAAAAAND DONE! That was hard work to write this, even though it really isn't that long. **

**Well I hope you all enjoyed this. For whoever is reading this, if you have any criticism or any ideas I can write for a new story then you will be very much appreciated.**

**And hopefully I can one day know the pleasure of reading a crack fic of Rika x Maka(both are flat little jailbait but Rika IS "on top" from what I've seen.) XDXD**


End file.
